


as the crooked smiles fade

by paleromantic



Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/F, I have so many feelings about the beta kids okay, I love them so much, M/M, MY BABIES
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-04
Updated: 2017-09-04
Packaged: 2018-12-24 01:04:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12001686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paleromantic/pseuds/paleromantic





	as the crooked smiles fade

“Hey, guys?”

 

Dave tossed the controller down, turning to face his friends who were sitting nearby. The little apartment he had chosen wasn’t much, it was cramped and shitty, but hell it was home and Dave liked it that way. It reminded him of before, kept him from losing his mind most nights. Even now that the game was done, the memories were still there to keep him awake. 

“Mm?” Rose looked at him, raising her eyes from the page she was reading and fixing him with a steady gaze and a soft smile. Her hair had grown longer, almost shaggy now, so most of the time she kept it held back in a messy ponytail, with her usual headband. Her clothes were new too, soft and comfortable and totally un-Rose like. At least, not the Rose he had known during the game. This Rose, she was _happy_. She had a wife, had a future…. Dave had never seen her happy like this, and now that he had, he never wanted it to end. 

“Do you ever… think about if we hadn’t played the game? Like, do you ever wish we hadn’t?”

The question hung in the air like cigarette smoke, filling the room up and settling in the silence. Rose’s expression shifted, a thoughtful more neutral look replacing the smile. Jade, who had been watching television, turned it down a little and looked at the rest of them, clearly considering the question, and John went to sit beside Rose, nursing a mug of tea and biting his lip. 

It wasn’t often that they had nights like this, just the four of them. Usually they were busy, with other friends, with their own lives, with significant others and futures and other things, but eventually it always came back to this. Four kids who became four adults, together. They didn’t even talk sometimes, they just enjoyed each other’s company until it was time to go. They had never really discussed the game, not really, but now the question was there, the elephant in the room. 

Dave looked around at his friends. Since when had they been so grown up? John’s hair had been cut recently, and he was starting to grow stubble, starting to look like an adult, and… fuck, why did it feel like only yesterday that they had been thirteen? Even Jade kept her hair out of her face and wore new glasses, although she had kept her love of green, and her love of animals. But, despite them having all changed so much, they were still themselves, still best friends. Dave supposed that was what happened when you grew with people, rather than apart from them. He couldn’t even imagine not having them in his life, not being able to see them.

From the looks of it, the other three were thinking along the same lines. Rose smiled at him again, and played with the ring on her finger.

Dave couldn’t help but do the same, twisting his own dark silver ring, and thinking of the other friends they had made. It had been a long journey to become friends, but he had to admit that he cared about the trolls a great deal, so much so that he considered them all to be his closest friends, at least that weren’t in the room with him. And then, of course, there was Karkat.

Dave had had a shitty childhood. He realised that now, but he hadn’t always known. Shit. man, he used to _idolise_ his Bro, and once that veneer had shattered, Dave himself had fallen to pieces too. But Karkat, Karkat hadn’t treated him like he was fragile. He didn’t pity him, he didn’t victimise him like everyone else did. He had simply gathered together the pieces of Dave, and helped him to put himself back together all on his own. And Dave, he was so happy, utterly content in this new world that they had all made together. 

The television screen cast dancing shadows in the room, and they caught his friends eyes, making them light up for just a moment, a fleeting glimpse of the light they had held way back, back at the beginning of everything. Back before they had known what was going to happen, back when everything was easy.

But that light had never left them, Dave realised. That childhood spark had never gone anywhere, it had led them through the game like a compass, bringing them to this, a new earth, a better future.

Rose was smiling again, as if she knew what he was thinking. Rose always seemed to know what he was thinking, even when he had forgotten himself. He smiled back, the corners of his mouth tugging upwards in a crooked grin, and Jade and John soon followed suit. The almost-silence was comfortable, more comfortable than ever, and though no one had answered, Dave was sure of what the answer was. Given the chance, he was almost certain that they’d do all of it again, to bring them here.

 

It had all been worth it. 

 


End file.
